Dhaka: The inflation rate during the 3rd Quarter (January-March) period of the current fiscal year (FY17) reached 5.28 percentage point down from 5.32 percentage point registered during the 2nd quarter (October-December) period of this fiscal.

"The inflation rate during this January-March period of current fiscal year reached 5.28 percentage point," said Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Tuesday while releasing the monthly consumer price index (CPI) after the day's ECNEC meeting.

The inflation rate during the 1st quarter (July-September) of this fiscal year was a bit high with 5.43 percentage point.

The Planning Minister said that from now on, they would publish the CPI index on quarterly basis instead of the monthly basis.

He said that the inflation rate during the 3rd Quarter (January-March) period of the last fiscal year was 5.78 percent.

According to the statistics compiled by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the food and services items those witnessed price hike during this 3rd quarter from the 2nd quarter are rice, Hilsha fish, shrimp, Tengra fish, meat, mutton, green chilly, soybean oil, tea and milk.

On the other hand among the non-food items, clothes, energy and power, house rent, furniture, household items, medical services, transport and educational equipment saw price hike in this 3rd quarter from the 2nd quarter of the current fiscal year.

According to the BBS, the inflation rate at the rural level in this 3rd Quarter (January-March) was a bit low with 5.08 percent which was only 4.95 percent during the 3rd Quarter of the previous fiscal year.

At the urban level, the General Point-to-Point inflation rate during the 3rd Quarter (January-March) period of the current fiscal year was a bit high notching 5.65 percent which was 7.34 percent during the (January-March) period of the last fiscal year.